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Mandrill
The mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) is a primate of the Old World monkey (Cercopithecidae) family, closely related to the baboons and even more closely to the drill. Both the mandrill and the drill were once classified as baboons in genus Papio, but recent research has determined they should be separated into their own genus, Mandrillus.The mandrill is the world's largest species of monkey. Charles Darwin wrote, "no other member in the whole class of mammals is coloured in so extraordinary a manner as the adult male mandrills". The mandrill is found in southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo. Its distribution is bounded by the Sanaga River to the north and the Ogooué and White rivers to the east. Recent research suggests that mandrill populations north and south of the Ogooué river are so genetically different as to be separate subspecies. Mandrills prefer to live in tropical rainforests and forest-savanna mosaics. They also live in gallery forests with savanna areas, riparian forests, rocky forests, agricultural areas and inundated forests and stream beds. Mandrills will cross grass areas within their forest habitat. The mandrill has an omnivorous diet. It mostly consumes plant matter and consumes over hundred species of plant. It mostly eats fruit, but will also eat leaves, lianas, bark, stems and fibers. It also consumes mushrooms and soil. With animals, mandrills mostly eat invertebrates, particularly ants, beetles, termites, crickets, spiders, snails and scorpions. It will also eat eggs, and occasionally vertebrates such as birds, tortoises, frogs, porcupines, rats and shrews.[14] Mandrills likely will eat larger vertebrates, such as juvenile bay duikers and small deer. One study found that the Mandrill’s diet was composed of fruit (50.7%), seeds (26.0%), leaves (8.2%), pith (6.8%), flowers (2.7%), and animal foods (4.1%), with other foods making up the remaining (1.4%). Mandrills themselves are preyed on by leopards, crowned eagles and certain snake species While mandrills are mostly terrestrial, they are more arboreal than baboons, and have been found in all forest levels. When on the ground, mandrills walk by digitigrade quadrupedalism. When in the trees, they move by lateral jumps. Mandrills are mostly diurnal, with activities starting in the morning and continuing into the evening. At night they sleep in trees. They sleep at a different site each night.[14] In the wild and in captivity mandrills have been observed using sticks to clean themselves. Mandrills seem to live in large stable groups called "hordes". Hordes often number in the hundreds, possibly averaging around 620 individuals and reaching as many as 845. It is difficult to accurately estimate group size in the forest, but filming a group crossing a gap between two forest patches or crossing a road is a reliable way of estimating group size. The largest group verifiably observed in this way contained over 1300 individuals, in Lopé National Park, Gabon — the largest aggregation of non-human primates ever recorded.Year-round residents of these groups are adult females and their dependent offspring. Males live a solitary lifestyle, and only enter hordes during female seasonal sexual cycling, which last three months each year. In addition to hordes and solitary males, smaller groups of 50 individuals have been recorded, though rarely, but never all-male bachelor groups. Battle Against Honey Badger A lone honey badger is on the prowl, looking for food. He come across a group of Mandrills who have killed a gazelle and are preparing to eat it. The honey badger haerhaehaeh defend his troop and picks up a nearby rock and throws it at the honey badger, hitting it on the nose. The badger growls even louderhfhasdfhasrth just missing the monkey's arm. The male madrill also lunges forward in a mock strike but as he does the badger snaps forward and grabs the madrill by the arm, digging his tas the large canine teeth of the primate dig into it's nerves. The mandrill clutches his injured arm with his good hand and slinks away into the bushes. The badger makes it's way to the carcess of the gazelle and begins to feed off it. The rest of the mandrill troop back away and wait untill the bger is satisfied and has dissapeared into the undergrowth before tenteivly making thier way back over to the carcess. Winner Honey Badger Experts Opinion The Badger's agressiveness and experiance fighting larger foes meant it made short work of the Mandrill. Category:Mammals Category:African Animals Category:Primates Category:Monkeys Category:Old World Monkeys Category:Omnivores Category:Vertebrates Category:Animals Category:Forest animals Category:Grassland animals